PayPal Sets Up India Tech Center For Data Localization

Following mandates by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), PayPal is opening a tech center in Hyderabad to ensure all data is stored exclusively on local servers.

Data is typically stored on global servers but policymakers in India said that data localization would help monitor and conduct investigations if the need arises, the Economic Times reported Tuesday (July 23).

“As part of our operating set-up in India, we work with a lot of partners and we are working with them with the proposal right now on how to enable this for the country,” Guru Bhat, vice president and head of engineering of PayPal India, said in the report.

In April 2018, the RBI set a six-month deadline for payment firms to comply with data localization.

The Hyderabad center, PayPal’s third technology center in India, will focus on data science, risk management and machine learning to help businesses protect themselves from fraud. The company acquired the fraud prevention platform Simility in 2018, which offered merchants customized fraud tools.

“India is a key growth market for PayPal and the opening of our global technology center in Hyderabad, the heart of innovation and technology in India, marks a significant milestone on our journey,” Bhat said.

Launched in India in 2017, PayPal India reported in January it experienced a more than twelvefold increase in revenue. It also rolled out two Innovation Labs in India to focus on technology like digital payments, artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR), using the labs to benefit the economy in India.

The online payments industry in India is expected to grow tenfold to $500 billion by 2020. Google also launched a localized payments app for India in 2017.